When singer-songwriter James Sifuentes got a diagnosis of Stage 4 pancreatic cancer earlier this year, he didn’t see it as the end.

Instead, Sifuentes decided to pursue a new beginning. The result is his debut album and magnum opus, the 12-song collection, Summertime.

This bout with cancer is not his first health scare. Ten years ago, he fought and won a battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Last year, he survived a heart attack. Now 61, Sifuentes says the latest diagnosis was “a wake-up call. If you’re going to make this record, you do it now.”

The music is the result of a lifetime of music-making. As a teen, Sifuentes and his brother, Bill, had a rock band in their hometown of Chicago. The twists and turns of life took Sifuentes away from music for decades, as he raised children and pursued his career as a hospital executive. 

An unexpected firing after 19 years on the job, along with multiple health scares, led him to reconnect with his brother for one more musical collaboration. In addition to Bill, Sifuentes was also joined on the album by his friend, Matt Regan, who played drums, piano, and arranged the excellent brass sections.

“The album is my life,” Sifuentes says. “It’s every struggle, every joy, every memory wrapped into 12 songs.” 

The artist’s life story can be heard clearly in the album’s two opening tracks, both about Chicago. The title track, “Summertime,” is an ode to the joy of summer sun and freedom after the confinement of a long, cold winter. “The Memory” takes listeners on a foot-tapping journey back to the neighborhood with friends at the park, mom calling from the old house, kissing girls, and “how good it really was.”

One standout on the album is “Rumors,” nearly 40 years in the making. Originally written by the Sifuentes brothers in the 1980s, the track sparkles with the energy of musicians picking up right where they left off. Over an upbeat 60s-style drumbeat and lively lead guitar lines played by Bill, multiple vocal lines overlap in Beatlesque harmonies. 

The lyrics evoke the classic teenage struggle with the schoolyard rumor mill:

People talking about you after school
You know that I don’t like it (I don’t like it)
Telling me I’m nothing but a fool
Who are they to say such things to me? 
…
There’s rumors spreading everywhere I go (I go)
Why can’t they leave us alone?

The Beatles influence can also be heard on tracks like “Searching For Another Day,” written by Sifuentes in his 20s when he felt the tension between pursuing his dream of music and being pressured to begin a career. Sifuentes’s vocals on this track feature a grittiness from being recorded while feeling the effects of chemotherapy, giving new meaning and urgency to the theme of the lyrics.

A variety of genres are featured on the album, from pop, to R&B, to Latin and soul. “Loving You Dear” has a 70s shuffle feel. Sifuentes’s Latin roots can be heard on the chachacha rhythm of the album’s final track, “Yes It’s Me.” The slow R&B grooves of Philly groups like The Delfonics ooze from sweet love songs like “Will You Be Mine.” 

Sifuentes and his group were joined in the studio by documentary filmmaker Diego Mora. The teaser is available now on YouTube. A full-length film is expected later this year.

“When people hear this album,” says Sifuentes, “I want them to feel the urgency, the soul, and the survival in every note.” 

Listen now to Summertime by Sifuentes, an album full of great pop, rock, and soul nostalgia, and above all a musical tribute honoring the gift of life.

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